Mayor Justin Bibb shakes up Cleveland’s flagging effort to stop children from being lead poisoned
Bibb wants to push for a higher standard of lead inspections in Cleveland rental properties. His executive order surprised the people who have been helping City Hall carry out its lead program for the last several years.
by Nick Castele October 17, 2024
Mayor Justin Bibb signs an executive order on lead poisoning, flanked by administration officials. Credit: City of Cleveland
A shakeup is coming to Cleveland’s multimillion-dollar fight against lead paint.
In an executive order this week, Mayor Justin Bibb argued that the city’s five-year-old effort to clear household lead hazards was ineffective. The order came as a surprise to people who have worked for years to help City Hall carry out its battle against lead.
Now the mayor is reaching for a more expensive and difficult goal: lead abatement.
The term “abatement” means the full removal or permanent containment of lead in a house. That could entail replacing walls, baseboards, windows, doors – any surface coated with lead-based paint before the substance was banned in 1978.
Chipped and peeling lead-based paint that was applied to homes decades ago still poses a risk to children. Cleveland, with its old housing stock, has one of the highest lead poisoning rates in the country.
https://signalcleveland.org/mayor-justin-bibb-shakes-cleveland-lead-poisoning-effort/
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